M*A*S*H- a season by season discussion!

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by ohnothimagen, Dec 1, 2017.

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  1. Yes, confused the episodes. It was the LIP episode I meant to cite.
     
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  2. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    Before we get too far away from season one, there's a little bit of that season - and the pilot specifically - that turns up in just about every episode in M*A*S*H's opening credits. Two actors who were in the pilot and later gone were George Morgan as Father Mulcahy and Karen Phillip as Lt. Dish. Yet the opening credits have them in a distant shot on the chopper pad. If you look closely, you can see Morgan on the far left, and Lt. Dish in the center with the khaky hat.

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    Music fans may also know Karen Phillip as the blonde in the Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 and '77 aggregations.

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    She appeared in two episodes, "Pilot" and "Germ Warfare", but George Morgan was quickly replaced by William Christopher.
     
  3. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I had never seen the proper opening for the pilot before this week. Needless to say it was a surprise to see Dish lurking in that familiar shot of Hawkeye.

    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Which is the one where the very nice acting Colonel is sending black soldiers to the most dangerous fighting, and is transferring them out, while trying to hang on to white soldiers? It might be a Potter/Winchester one.
     
  5. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    So I guess they liked the shot so much, they reshot it with just Hawk?
     
  6. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    No, they just cut right before Dish becomes visible.
     
  7. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Thanks - though it seems familiar...
     
  8. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Thanks - though it seems familiar...
     
  9. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Yeah, the original opening sequence to the Pilot episode is missing in syndication- understandable, I suppose. Actually I believe that other than the changed opening the Pilot episode has hardly any syndication cuts at all, especially compared to some of the other early episodes.
    "The Tooth Shall Set You Free", season 10. Features a young Lawrence Fishburne as one of the black soldiers.
    It is- Jason posted it in one of the other M*A*S*H discussions- it's a great read.
     
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  10. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Sunday night bump!
     
  11. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    [​IMG]

    As you all know, tonight Colonel Blake will resume his command after a week in Tokyo. Now, unless I made a few remarks about my recent stint as your temporary supreme commander, I would be derelict in my officiousness. I think you'll all agree that by trying to introduce more discipline, more order, I have hopefully made this a more enjoyable war for all of us. Leadership is a lonely business. Your Napoleons, your Kaisers, your Attilas the Hun... were all alone there in the front office, as I have been this week. I have thought of you, and I know you have thought of me... But some of the notes in the suggestion box were really below the belt! I mean, why drag my mother into this?

    ---

    "Henry in Love"
    Written by Larry Gelbart and Laurence Marks
     
  12. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Not a big fan of "Henry In Love", probably my least favourite season 2 episode. Henry behaves like a total asss IMO and his young lover throwing herself at Hawkeye seemed a bit too obvious a plot device to me. Not one of Gelbart/Marks finer moments...
     
  13. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    I love "Henry In Love". Virtually every scene has a classic line: "And you're in love with her mother?", "That'll be more than all, Radar", "One of us is in love with Henry Blake -- and I think it's me"... Frank's speech is a comic high point for the series.
     
  14. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    "Mail Call"
    written by Larry Gelbart and Laurence Marks

    The classic "mother dying" scene:

     
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  15. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
  16. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Love that scene! Love that whole episode, actually. Pioneer Aviation:laugh:

    I also like the scene where Hawkeye is trying to convince a drunk, homesick Trapper not to go AWOL:

    Trapper: I need to see my kids. You know how long it's been since I made love to my wife?!
    Hawkeye: At least one daughter ago...:laugh::laugh::laugh:
     
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  17. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Many S2 episodes were directed by former child star Jackie Cooper

    Cooper wins an Emmy for directing MASH:

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    Cooper's title card for "The Ringbanger", w/Leslie Nielsen. This episode was crucial in Nielsen's career, as it showed he could successfully underplay zany comedy, a talent he would later take to the bank in Airplane and Police Squad. I wonder how much Cooper helped shape his performance?

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    Around 1980 Cooper published a memoir:

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    In it he discussed his time on MASH. I haven't read the book since the '80s, but IIRC he was less than enamored of Alan Alda. Cooper claimed that Alda refused to shoot the ending of "The Sniper" as originally written (in which the sniper dies), but insisted on a rewrite in which Hawkeye courageously goes to the sniper and treats his wounds.

    Cooper said the most difficult cast members were Alda, Swit, and Stevenson, "the most uncooperative actor I've ever worked with" -- quite a statement from a man with 40+ years in show business even then.

    The easiest to work with were Rogers and Linville. Cooper said he never had a problem with either of them.

    While in recent years Burghoff has gotten a rep for difficulty on the MASH set, IIRC Cooper did not mention him. Bear in mind that Burghoff is known to have clashed with Alda, and this may have affected discussion of his time on MASH.
     
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  18. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    That doesn't really surprise me that Mac Stevenson had a bit of an ego- he originally auditioned for the role of Hawkeye, don't forget. I get the feeling that, not unlike Wayne Rogers, Stevenson figured the show would be more ensemble, equal footing, instead of playing second banana to Alan Alda, and soon became disenchanted when it didn't turn out that way. Didn't take long to bring him back down to earth though...how successful was Hello Larry again?:laugh:
     
  19. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Strange that. Henry's barely in the movie.

    Just watched a late Frank episode where he calls Hawkeye, "Tubercular head." Not one of hius finest moments, but better than telling Margaret he wants to "rape her nape..."
     
  20. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    Just watched it again, it's still hilarious even though I've seen it about fifty times already!

    "Dear son" ... "You obviously haven't sent her a recent photo"

    The final kicker: "I don't deserve to be in the Army!" :biglaugh:
     
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  21. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    In one of the later episodes Klinger tries pulling the same stunt with Potter -claiming his brothers were killed in an explosion- and it fails just as well.

    So here's a discussion question:

    Out off all of Klinger's stunts designed to escape, go AWOL or go home in general, which do you think was the best one?
    Probably the blue ribbon winner: "A big red bird with fuzzy pink feet!":laugh:
    [​IMG]
     
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  22. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    This is the "final thoughts on season 2 before we move on to season 3" bump!
     
  23. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    The show really took off in the public's consciousness in Season Two after it found a new time slot. The early Sunday time slot made the show somehow less important as weekend activities were still wrapping up. But by moving it to Saturday, it found its audience.
     
  24. I loved Henry In Love; I watched this whole show when it aired, the whole series (born in 1967, I watched the earlier ones on repeats I'm sure). I too feel the first three seasons are the best and wrote a post I saved somewhere as a draft.
    This thread got me to buy used copies of the show on DVD for the first time (I had them on VHS, but they're gone) (I used to watch this with my late mom, who loved it; hadn't seen it for years)
    I'm finding over the shows I've watched some real gems (Tuttle is my favorite MASH episode period, always was; The Ringbanger is great) and some pretty bad ones (Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde, Edwina [which I didn't remember as bad as it was to me now])
    Henry In Love is a great one. It's not meant to be over-analyzed.
    And unlike most, I need the laugh track - I grew up watching it this way; it's not the same without it, for me.
     
  25. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    Once we got the very first season DVD set when first released and discovered the option to nuke the laugh track, we've always done so. I'm usually not anti-laugh track, but on M*A*S*H, it works better for us without, playing more like a comedic movie than a studio-bound sitcom. If we happen to find the show on television and it has its laugh track, it's still OK. But our choice is without.

    Oh - and on the original DVDs at least, that no-laugh track sound track has sightly higher fidelity sound, IMHO.
     
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